Bringing home birthday cake, mom and daughter find fire raging in apartment; whole family displaced

Friday, March 12, 2010

A two-alarm fire in Jersey City yesterday displaced a family of six and ruined a 19-year-old's birthday.

Jahneka Fontaine and her mother, both of 17 Gifford Ave., had just bought Fontaine's birthday cake when they arrived home at around 3:30 p.m.

Fontaine said she heard alarms going off, but entered the five-story brick building anyway.

But when she opened the door to the family's fifth-floor apartment she saw flames shooting from the bedroom.

She and her mother immediately started knocking on the other tenants' doors, trying to get them to leave the building.

Firefighters contained the fire to the Fontaines' apartment, Fire Director Armando Roman said last night.

The cause of the blaze, which was out by 4:09 p.m., was unattended candles, he said.

"I'm very upset," said Fontaine, whose birthday is today.

The Red Cross had to relocate the entire family - three adults and three children.

REENA ROSE SIBAYAN and KEN THORBOURNE